Larry Ridley
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Larry Ridley (born in 1937) is an American jazz bassist and music educator.
He has recorded few sessions as leader, and is known primarily as a sideman. After graduating from Indiana University and the Lenox School of Jazz, he moved to New York City, where in the 1960s and early 1970s he worked with several prominent musicians, including Art Farmer, Red Garland, Slide Hampton, Jackie McLean, Thelonious Monk, Lee Morgan, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, and George Wein.
In 1971 he became chairman of the music department at Livingston College of Rutgers University, and designed its undergraduate and graduate jazz degree programs. He was chairman till 1980, and remained a professor of music till his retirement in 1999. He has also served with many federal and state art agencies in the United States, including the National Endowment for the Arts.
He continues to perform; a notable association of this period was with Philly Joe Jones and his Dameronia.
He may be heard on Jackie McLean's highly regarded Destination Out! (1963), with Grachan Moncur III, Bobby Hutcherson, and Roy Haynes.